Last week was the start of the ICF SUP World Championships in Gdynia, Poland. A beachside location which had calm water protected by a marina for sprint racing, and open water into the Baltic Sea perfect for the long distance and technical racing. I had never been to Poland before, but soon found that it is a beautiful country with lots of lovely towns and interesting architecture, fascinating history and really friendly people. Gdynia was a great and accessible location for the World Championships, many of us stayed close to the event site, there was secure board storage areas and information was distributed from the organisers clearly. The event was 5 days long and started with sprint racing before holding the long-distance race and then the technical races.

My first day in Poland was not a race day for me, I set up my board and went for a warm up paddle. The day before racing, I always like to get on the water for around 45 minutes if I can to stretch out my muscles after travelling. I start with some gentle paddling and do some short bursts to get my body fired up and ready to compete. When I’m racing somewhere new, it’s also helpful to go out into the open water and feel the conditions to see how my board responds. There was a light breeze and I could tell that the water state was going to be choppy for the rest of the week.

Sprint race training has not been my focus this year, but it was fun to take part in the 180m sprints on the first day of the event. We had some strong side winds which meant pointing the right direction on the start line and staying on course was quite tricky. There was some controversy regarding athletes not staying in their lanes and many protests were made throughout the day. I made it through my heats, quarter finals and semi finals and ended up in the B final. Sadly a few things went wrong for me in the final. Another athlete paddled out of her lane and into my board a few seconds off of the start and I lost my focus. I was never expecting a World Title in the sprints but I was annoyed at myself for getting distracted and not being able to paddle my hardest. I finished in 16th position overall. After comparing my Paddle Logger map from last year’s ICF sprint race to this year’s – I can easily see that I’m much better at staying in a straight line now and I’m more efficient with my energy! Although I haven’t trained for short sprint distances, I’m still happy with my progress and have lots of things to improve on over the winter.

The day of the distance race we had the worst weather conditions of the whole week. It was cold, drizzly and there were strong winds. The racing was postponed by 3 hours in the hope that the weather would calm slightly, but it was still predicted that 60-70% of the athletes would pull out during the race. Luckily, these conditions are quite typical in Devon where I live, and I had been training in almost identical weather at the beach a few days before. The course was four laps of a 4km triangle shape totalling 16km. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel nervous and was just keen to get started. I wanted to go paddling. I had a strong start off of the beach and tried my best to stay as close to the front pack as possible for the first upwind leg before they pulled away from me. The first stretch of the course was almost into the wind but not quite, so I was paddling on my left side for almost all of it. I was getting tired, so it was a relief to turn at the first buoy and be able to paddle on my right side. The second leg of the course had a strong wind and swell coming from the side but fortunately was very short before a longer downwind section. I managed to catch a few bumps coming in to finish each lap but there was a lot of back wash bouncing off of the big marina wall, so it was very choppy and not easy at all! After the first lap, I looked down at my watch to see how long it had taken me to complete the first lap and I was already feeling physically tired – the conditions were getting worse, and I couldn’t believe we still had to do it another 3 times! The wind picked up throughout the race, but it was soon my last lap and I now had a battle for my position with two other racers. I fell once throughout the whole race, right at the start of my final lap and felt the wind chill on my arms. I didn’t want to get cold now! The other racers close to me were both stronger than me on the upwind leg, but my board skills meant I was able to stay balanced and pull forward in the side wind and downwind legs and I was pleased to finish in 13th position. My average speed was much slower than usual; the upwind leg and backwash from the wall really made it difficult to get much glide from the board but this race has taught me a lot. These were some of the hardest conditions I have ever paddled in, and it will certainly be memorable.

The technical race heats were the day after the distance race, and I think everyone who completed the distance race felt pretty sore!! I can see why some paddlers prefer to specialise in just longer distance races or just sprint and technical races – having a rest day instead of completing the gruelling distance race and feeling fresh for the technical would have made such a difference. I always get a bit nervous before technical racing because I train on my own a lot so beach starting and turning around the buoys at the same time as others is usually only something I get to practice in races. Technical races are over very quickly, and positions are made and lost on the turns; if you fall in, it’s often game over. I had a great race in my first heat and made it through into the semi-finals where I was happy with my performance but frustratingly had some bad luck with the heat draw. There was really tough competition in my semi-final. Only the first four from each race made it to the finals and I finished in 5th place with four top athletes ahead of me. I had a faster time than 4th place in any other semi-final and I really wanted to make the final but that’s just how racing goes sometimes. It meant I was able to watch the finals and I learned so much just from seeing how the best in the world do it.

British Canoeing had selected a team for the event and we collected points for the distance and technical racing. It was amazing to take home a 3rd place in the long distance and a 2nd place in the technical for Great Britain.

The ICF events are so well organised and I’d highly recommend going to one if you can. The locations are easy to access, they are not overly expensive to enter, and they are suitable for many paddlers with junior racing, open categories, 40+ and 50+. Over 500 paddlers attended this event in Poland and everybody was so helpful to each other. Although we were racing and competing against one another, there was a huge team feeling and everybody was out to support and cheer each other on.